Author: James Allen Willis

  • Interview: Shirley Leonard (author)

    Author Shirley Leonard talks about her “second family” at the 2010 Montrose Christian Writers Conference. Shirley’s devotionals have appeared in the The Secret Place, The Quiet Hour, Devotions, and Penned from the Heart. Her stories and articles have been published in Live, Women Alive, and Pennsylvania Magazine. She is a contributing writer for American Window […]

  • The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

    This review was originally posted on Nov. 30, 2008 on a different blog (no longer maintained). I’m re-running it here because I think this is an important movie. It is now out on DVD. I encourage you to rent it and watch it. Powerful. This is not an easy review to write. Not because I […]

  • Getting Ready for the 2010 Montrose Christian Writer’s Conference

    A quick post to let you know that I will be presenting at the Montrose Christian Writer’s Conference from July 25-30, 2010. The conference is held at the Montrose Bible Conference in beautiful Montrose, Pennsylvania, about a half hour from Binghamton, NY. The tuition is a very reasonable $165 for the week (sans meals). I’ll […]

  • Hunt’s Pond State Park and My Fork in the (Writing) Road

    Who can say for sure what events and experiences in life set a person on the path they eventually take? Many things affect an individual’s choices—the family and socioeconomic circumstances into which one is born, geography, natural talent and even technology. For those who call themselves “writers” or “authors” or “journalists,” do you have a […]

  • A Checklist Can (Literally) Save Your Life

    The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right is a new book with a fresh view on on the lowly checklist–its practicality and usefulness for not only routine tasks, but also for highly complex situations like building skyscapers and operating on people. Written by Boston surgeon Dr. Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto takes us on […]

  • Why I Chose to Buy an Amazon Kindle as My eBook Reader

    Before departing on a recent business trip to London, I purchased an Amazon Kindle 2 (Global version) ebook reader for the trip. The trip was my shameless justification for buying. You see, I’m a hopelessly, forever-comitted reading addict. I’ve been a regular reader since my youth, and my reading habit seems to have progressed from […]

  • Locate the Elevation for Your Address Online

    We’re facing the first snow of the season today. According to the wizards of the weather, if you live above 1500 feet elevation, you may get anywhere from 3 to 7 inches of snow! Which got me to wondering, not for the first time, “How can I find the elevation of our home?” We moved […]